Research questions effectiveness of sobriety checkpoints

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If you were driving one of the 18,747 vehicles Kansas City police stopped at drunken-driving checkpoints last year, odds are you weren't arrested.

In fact, only 1.6 percent of those drivers were arrested for being drunk.

Police departments around the Kansas City area and the country spend thousands of dollars a year on DUI checkpoints with similar results. While police defend checkpoints as a great public relations tool against drunken driving, there are better ways to catch drunken drivers, experts say.